associate artist

Sam Mortimer is a freelance illustrator, working with a mix of traditional and digital processes on various projects but focusing on work aimed at children. 

Before illustration, Sam worked within the music and film industry. Starting at Technicolor and Abbey Road, in roles ranging from the tape library to editing, encoding, programming and graphic design work. Sam then worked as a producer for two smaller, creative media companies Meedja and Pavement. Clients included the likes of Radiohead, Queen, Pink Floyd and Channel 4.

As a freelance illustrator Sam has worked alongside design agencies, record labels and magazines, doing work including packaging design, storyboarding and character development for animation and various online images. 

Clients included Air Bnb, Universal Music and the Spectator alongside countless smaller, independent companies and individuals.

Stepping slightly away from this work to bring up his daughter and to concentrate on working for and with children, Sam moved to Bexhill last year, from London. In Brixton he was involved in the community street festival ‘Splash’ and a regular contributor to popular local website Brixton Buzz. Sam helped run the artistic studio space he worked from, establishing a weekly creative writing workshop and a yearly open studio weekend alongside other local art venues.

For many years Sam volunteered for the Ministry of Stories in Hackney, a charity that runs creative writing workshops for children. Working as a writing mentor and an illustrator for the regular workshops, alongside one-off projects such as illustrating published picture books with stories developed with the kids, developing short-film scripts and helping to establish and leading a comic book workshop.

@samlemort